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The first ever Bramley apple tree, which is on the verge of dying, could be saved for the nation by a university.

The tree was grown from a pip planted by a child, Mary Ann Brailsford, in 1809, in Southwell, Nottinghamshire.

It didn't bear fruit until 1837, and it wasn't until 1876 that the teenage son of a local nurseryman spotted its potential and took the first grafts. By 1944, more than a quarter of a million Bramley trees were growing in commerical plantations across England and Wales.

The original tree survived being blown over in a storm in 1900, but is now slowly dying, gripped by the incurable honey fungus infection.

Nottingham Trent University hopes to rescue it, by buying the cottage where the tree stands in the back garden and turning it into postgraduate student accommodation.

The house where the original Bramley Apple tree grows, which Nottingham Trent University hopes to buyCredit:
Robert Rathbone

Professor Robert Mortimer, Dean of Nottingham Trent University's School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences, said: "The Bramley is the nation's favourite cooking apple and the original tree is one of the most significant and well-known."

"Unfortunately it will inevitably perish due to disease, but we would like to try to preserve this great tree for the people of Southwell for as long as possible.

"It has such huge cultural significance for the town and for Nottinghamshire, but also nationally and globally. We want to play our part in recognising its importance."

If the sale goes through, horticulture staff and students would carry out an initial assessment of the tree. They would then set about carefully tending it with the aim of prolonging its life, and grafts of the original tree would be planted at the university's Brackenhurst campus.

The plaque on the house where the original Bramley Apple tree is situatedCredit:
Robert Rathbone

The aim would also be to open up the cottages' rose garden to the public, as well as develop plans to formally celebrate the history and heritage of the UK's most popular cooking apple.

The first recorded sale of a Bramley was on October 31, 1862, when three apples were sold for two shillings.

Today there are more than 300 Bramley growers in England, with about 83,000 tonnes of the apples grown annually in the UK alone.